ande ande lumut oil project

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1 ande ande lumut oil project Unlocking hidden value At the start of 2011, AWE s presence in Asia comprised a handful of Indonesian exploration permits. But as the year drew to a close, an opportunity emerged that would take the company s Asian growth strategy to the next level. 16

2 When members of AWE s geoscience and engineering teams walked into the Genting Oil & Gas data room, just before Christmas 2011, the sale process for the Northwest Natuna and Anambas Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) had already been under way for several weeks. The jewel in the crown was the Ande Ande Lumut (AAL) oil discovery in the Northwest Natuna PSC, then a 76 million barrel heavy oil reservoir, but the winning bidder would need to have some serious technical, development and operational capabilities to deliver the project and a strong enough balance sheet to make an all cash bid. A heavy oil discovery, the AAL oil project came with an approved Plan of Development (POD) utilising a wellhead platform with more than 40 production wells and a leased Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel. Producing and handling the heavy oil and potential oil/water emulsions, the need for sand screening in the wells and the anticipated high levels of water production had slowed earlier plans to develop the field and deterred many potential buyers. But where others saw only challenges, AWE s experts could clearly see technical solutions and a significant value creation opportunity. To win the bidding process and acquire the asset, AWE had to think and act fast. AWE s Managing Director, Bruce Clement, said: We came late to the sale process but we have very strong and talented engineering and geoscience people who were able to apply good science and sound engineering to the opportunity. The technical and commercial teams came up with a value for AAL well in excess of what we would eventually pay for the asset. We knew that if we bought it, we could do a lot more with AAL. We knew we could add significant value, he said. 1 Sub-surface appraisal 2 Preparing for drilling at Tui, New Zealand 3 Depth map of AAL reservoir 1 A very compelling story Facing a short, two week deadline to evaluate the data and make a decision to bid, AWE needed to address key reservoir and facilities issues and move quickly to make an offer. The company s technical and commercial teams swung into action to assess the data and value the asset. Chief Financial Officer, Ayten Saridas, explained that despite the short time frame, the company had one big advantage over other potential bidders. Fortuitously for AWE, we already had an exploration team in Indonesia and a motivated technical team in Sydney. Our engineers and geoscientists 2 awe limited annual report

3 spent an intensive period evaluating the data and completing thorough due diligence on the asset. They had to be efficient and get to the core issues quickly and they came back with a very positive view on AAL. We then pulled together a working group that included the financial and commercial teams plus the engineers and geoscientists, and created a board recommendation within about a week. It was a very compelling story both technically and financially, she said. We knew the history of this asset and that it had been on and off the market a number of times in the past. Many companies had gone into the data room and seen this asset before. It was seen as a challenging project and most had shied away from it. They probably saw only problems whereas we could also see the solutions, largely based on the experience gained from other projects in our portfolio such as Tui and Cliff Head, Saridas said. She added, It was right in the sweet spot for AWE in terms of the technical skills we bring to the table and it was just the sort of challenge that our team was able to resolve. We had very little time to pull the final offer together and to review it with our Board. There were quite a few late nights and weekends worked by the whole team leading up to Christmas A strong negotiating hand By the end of December 2011, AWE had submitted an offer to buy both the Northwest Natuna and Anambas PSCs, knowing it had an excellent understanding of the potential value of the PSCs when it came to the negotiation phase. AWE was in a very strong position to buy this asset, said Saridas. We had a seller who was keen to dispose of the asset quickly for strategic reasons and a compelling part of our offer was that it was not conditional on financing. There were two PSCs and we committed to completing the deal in a very short period. We had substantial cash on the balance sheet, which gave us the firepower to pursue growth through acquisition. The company was in a very sound position financially and we had no problems about our ability to finance this acquisition as well as the future development. As a result, we were able to negotiate the sale and purchase agreement within two weeks. She continued, In the end we paid a price for the asset that represented a substantial discount to the value we believed we could extract from it. Closing the deal The sale of 100% of the Northwest Natuna and Anambas PSCs to AWE, along with operatorship, was announced in January 2012 and completed in February the same year. AWE acquired the assets from Genting for US$39 million and assumed US$100 million in debt which was immediately paid down. We knew there would be challenges inherent in developing this asset, but they were all solvable. As soon as we acquired the asset our team set about addressing those issues, Clement said. From the outset, our strategy was to sell down up to 50% of the Northwest Natuna PSC, including AAL. Projects of this size are rarely undertaken with 100% equity. We wanted a partner in the project to provide technical and operational support and input, and to share funding for the future development costs. Realistically, a 50% exposure was about right for a company of our size. "We knew that if we bought it, we could do a lot more with AAL. We knew we could add significant value. " Geoscience The science of interpreting petroleum industry seismic survey data is one of the bigger mysteries in the art of making new oil and gas discoveries. But AWE has particular expertise in this area and has repeatedly shown that top quality geoscience work can generate massive value and reduce development risk. Manager of Exploration Assets and Geoscience, Andy Furniss, said that lessons learned from a detailed reinterpretation of the seismic data over AWE s Tui oil field in New Zealand helped the geoscience team understand how new value could be created at the AAL asset. The AAL structure has many similarities to Tui. The seismic imaging of AAL and Tui are virtually identical in many respects. We realised we needed to reprocess the seismic data and depth imaging over AAL using modern computer technology. New technology allowed us to better image the reservoir and be much more confident about the volume of oil in place, he said. Having mapped the AAL field more closely and in greater detail, the geoscience team participated in a major rework of the well development plan. The end result, confirmed by independent evaluation, was a 33% increase in recoverable oil to 101 million barrels. Our work has also identified a new prospect to the south west of AAL which could be quite valuable, and there are still a lot of geoscience projects under way to identify the sweet spots in the AAL reservoir, added Furniss. 3 awe limited annual report

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5 ande ande lumut oil project continued Adding value through innovation Clement said, We had identified an early stage development project with significant upside potential and we immediately set about improving it, initially focusing on a detailed understanding and evaluation of the reservoir. Over a 12 month period we reprocessed and reinterpreted 3D seismic, re-evaluated well logs, cores and test results and built a new reservoir simulation model. Our engineering and project team used this work as the basis for improving the reservoir development plan by optimising well placement and designing fewer wells with longer horizontal completions to improve oil recovery from the field. Well completion and artificial lift designs were enhanced, using proven sand screening and electric submersible pump technology. In addition, clever, innovative solutions have been delivered for handling oil/water emulsions and produced water on the FPSO, again applying proven industry technology and our experience from involvement in other similar projects, Clement said. The end result of 18 months of work was an improved reservoir and facilities development plan, yielding increased oil recovery and greater production capacity, and the removal of key project risks that had caused others to avoid the opportunity. Reserves growth AWE s optimised development plan had increased oil recovery from AAL s K-Sand reservoir in the original POD by 33%, from 76 million barrels to 101 million barrels. In addition, following the independent review and certification by Perth based RPS Energy Services, AWE reclassified AAL contingent resources to reserves, with AWE booking 50 million barrels as 2P Reserves, reflecting its 100% equity entitlement under the PSC. AWE also estimated a further 35 million barrels of gross recoverable oil in the underlying G-Sand reservoir and added 15 million barrels to its 2C Contingent Resources. A formal plan of development will need to be prepared and submitted for normal regulatory approvals before these additional Contingent Resources can be upgraded and reclassified as 2P Reserves. By mid 2013, AWE had added significant value to the asset, but the next challenge was to find a partner and crystallise the value through a strategic sell down. A compelling part of our offer was that it was not conditional on financing Engineering A number of engineering challenges confronted AWE as it considered acquiring the AAL oil project in late Three major areas for improving the proposed AAL field development were identified, leveraging off AWE s experience in projects such as the Tui oil field in New Zealand and the Cliff Head oil project offshore Western Australia. General Manager Engineering, Ian Palmer, said: We were able to pinpoint three key areas where we could develop the field in a more cost effective and productive way. The first was by drilling fewer, but longer reaching horizontal wells in the overall development plan to give us much more reservoir contact. That meant more oil bearing rock could be reached with each well, increasing overall production per well and potentially increasing the initial production rate and total recovery. The second area was how to deal with oil/water emulsions, which tend to be formed when producing heavy oil of the type in the AAL reservoir, said Palmer. We quickly identified electrostatic separation as a proven industry technology that we could apply. Subsequently, extensive tests by an independent laboratory in Europe proved this technology would be very effective in producing the oil. The third area was to simplify the wellhead platform design. Learning from our experience with the Cliff Head project, we were able to simplify the platform by using more modern designs and equipment and substantially reduced the cost, he said. 1 20

6 2 1 Reservoir Engineering 2 FPSO vessel Umuroa, offshore New Zealand Welcoming a new partner In August 2013, almost 20 months after acquiring 100% of the AAL oil project and after a two month sale process, AWE announced it would sell a 50% interest in the Northwest Natuna PSC, including the AAL oil project, to a subsidiary of Santos Limited for total consideration of US$188 million. Conditional to the sale was the transfer of operatorship to Santos, subject to financial completion and Indonesian regulatory approval. The sale of a half share in the AAL oil project has substantially strengthened AWE s financial position and reduced its funding commitments for the project. AWE will receive US$100 million in cash payable on completion and a US$88 million cost recoverable capital expenditure carry for the development phase of the project. Both AWE and Santos are working together to transition operatorship of the project and reach a Final Investment Decision (FID) for the development of AAL in the first half of 2014, with first oil estimated to be produced in Clement believes that there is a lot more value still to be generated from the AAL project by developing the field and producing the oil. The sale process delivered a great strategic and financial outcome for AWE that reflects more than 18 months of hard work, leading edge geoscience and smart, innovative engineering. Our project team in Jakarta has done an excellent job with the asset. There is still further potential upside in the AAL K- Sand and G-Sand reservoirs and a number of very interesting prospects elsewhere in the PSC, so this has been a real win-win for both AWE and Santos, said Clement. A strategic success Clement said that the successful sale highlights AWE s value creation strategy and its ability to leverage its core strengths to deliver positive commercial outcomes. AWE has established a strong reputation for acquiring assets with significant upside potential, initially with Tui and Cliff Head, and more recently Sugarloaf and AAL, he said. Like Tui, the AAL oil project promises a dramatic production and revenue impact that will allow AWE to double its total production output within three to five years. It s all part of our disciplined and methodical approach towards looking at opportunities and growing the business, said Clement. Strategically, we wanted to grow the business outside our existing core areas of Australia and New Zealand. The AAL asset was a perfect fit in our portfolio, as we had a number of mature production assets and some exploration assets but very little in the early stages of development. We also had good in-country operating experience in Indonesia. While adding 50 million barrels of 2P Reserves, the acquisition also improved our balance of oil and gas reserves and resources, he added. Using the success of the AAL transaction as a blueprint, AWE s technical and commercial teams are now looking for new growth opportunities where they can again leverage the company s core strengths to create significant value. awe limited annual report